Sometimes, even one of the best papers in the country gets the story wrong.
In this case, the paper is The New York Times, long my favorite.
And the screw-up was memorable.
On Friday’s front page, The Times featured an eye-grabbing story about the dismissal of a 49-year-old pastor at Manhattan’s Riverside Church, a well-known, progressive church.
Rick rojas
Times’ reporter Rick Rojas, a five-year Times veteran who does not get many front-page stories, portrayed Rev. Amy Butler as a “rising star” who was the victim in a squabble with the church’s governing council. Specifically, Rojas pinned the blame on a 70-year-old former governing council member named Ed Lowe, whom Rojas painted as a blatant sexist.
Rojas’ second and third paragraphs set the tone for this 30-column-inch story:
“Two years into her tenure, an influential former member of the church’s governing council (Lowe) left a bottle of wine and a T-shirt on her desk, both with labels that read ‘Sweet Bitch,’ according to an internal investigation ordered by the church after Dr. Butler filed a formal complaint.
“The former governing council member also sent suggestive emails and text messages to Dr. Butler’s female colleagues, the investigation found.”
Shocking, right? So shocking that, according to Rojas, a hubbub resulted and the governing council this month dismissed Butler, who had been senior pastor five years, by not renewing her contract.
But just a second…Does that make any sense? That the governing council of a progressive church with 1,750 members would not renew Butler’s contract because a member of the council did her wrong?
Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the council would get rid of the offending council member and apologize to the pastor?
The story didn’t make sense, and when I read it Friday morning I had the feeling I wasn’t getting the full story. My wife Patty, who manufactured clergy vestments for 25 years, also read the story. A friend of hers — another person in the vestment business — sent her an email that cited a story on a website called Queerty, which covers the gay community. The headline on the story reads, “Pastor fired after pressuring gay minister to sex shop, offering to buy him sex toy.”
The story — posted the same day The Times’ story was published in its print edition — said “the sex toy shopping spree” occurred May 15 while Butler was in Minneapolis for a religious conference with two assistant ministers and a congregant from Riverside Church.
The story continues.
During a break from the conference, Pastor Amy suggested they check out the Smitten Kitten, a local sex shop. When one of the assistant ministers, a gay man in a committed relationship, said he was uncomfortable with that idea, Pastor Amy insisted.
Feeling ‘pressured,’ the man agreed to tag along with the women. Inside the store, Pastor Amy offered to buy him a sex toy. He politely declined her offer.
Then Pastor Amy offered to buy a $200 vibrator for another assistant minister, a single mother of two. The woman accepted the sex toy but later said she really didn’t want it and had only taken it because she feared professional retaliation.
At the register, Pastor Amy allegedly said, “Is this a church business expense?” then whipped out her church credit card.
Upon returning to New York, the two assistant ministers filed a formal harassment claim, prompting the church to hire a third-party investigator who interviewed both of them and substantiated the claims.
In response, Pastor Amy and church officials agreed it was time for her to go.
The Queerty account sounded a lot more credible than The Times’ story, which had made no mention whatsoever of the sex-shop incident. I was skeptical, however, because I’d never heard of Queerty and have no idea how reliable it is.
Then I went to Google and found that the New York Post had run a story Thursday night reporting that Butler had indeed been ousted because of the sex-shop incident.
In its lead sentence, the Post was able to both have fun with the story and embarrass The Times:
“The reason for her ouster is far more stimulating than any sermon this pastor could have delivered.”
Deeper in the story, the Post rubbed it in some more, saying:
“In a New York Times published online Thursday — after The Post began making calls for this story — her supporters claimed she was let go because she spoke up against harassment and sexism.”
At some point, The Times made significant changes to its online story, including relating the sex-shop outing in the seventh, eighth and ninth paragraphs. The Times also tempered its unattributed implication that the “Sweet Bitch” business had cost Butler her job and instead attributed that claim to “Dr. Butler’s supporters.”
Ordinarily, The Times is very up front and transparent when it changes or corrects online stories, noting the changes or corrections at the bottom. That was not the case with this story, however; there was no mention of the story having been changed.
…This story, prominently played where it was, proved to be a major embarrassment for The Times. It even borders on — I hate to say it — fake news.
Rick Rojas is probably on very thin ice right now. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes when he is summoned for his annual evaluation.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Troubling that the NYT ran the original skewed story. Even more troubling that they weren’t up front about their having made corrections to the later version.
I would think the editor has a lot of explaining to do, too. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, either.
Now we know the whole story. Thanks for digging deeper, Fitz. You’ve still got it.
Thanks, Kevin. Good to hear from you.
The real story was posted on Facebook yesterday and so I was puzzled when you started off with the Times version which i knew to be utter bullshit. When are the guys in the media going to figure out that publishing half-truths and agenda driven stories (regardless of whose agenda is driving it) simply doesn’t make it any more? No matter how powerful CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NYT, WAPO, doesn’t matter, somewhere there’s a little local blogger like the one you (and now half the known universe) discovered who posts the actual facts and demonstrates that the big boys are often full of shit.
Trump didn’t create the mantra of fake news, he’s simply giving voice to the millions who have realized the bias and lies for decades. Indeed, I’m reminded of one of my professors in grad school who wrote about the implosion of communism in Eastern Europe (he was a visiting professor in philosophy from Yugoslavia) He referred to the media under communism as “mendacious consciousness”, in essence, they’re lying, you know they’re lying, they know they’re lying, but he fact that they can lie with impunity demonstrates to their supporters that they’re still in power.
If you really want to cut down on the polarization in society, cut the bullshit and do what you just did, give us both sides of the story and let us figure the rest out.
You are spot on John! This has been and will continue to be the case with big media. They are whores for clicks NOT facts or truth. Hence, you have local blogs (like this one and Tony’s Kansas City) that have far more credibility than any journalist or media company.
Being a liberal, I don’t mind a liberal tilt to stories, but, damn, you gotta at least get the story right!
Your politics have nothing to do with journalistic competency. The guy who covered me for The Kansan when I was Chair of the WYCO Party was a registered Democrat who later ran for office against Doug Spangler. His deadline was in the morning and I am not a morning person. So when he called I muttered something about what my position was and he always made me sound like far more articulate than I ever was at that hour. Andy WIlliams I believe was his name. Good reporter. Roy Teicher was the editor. Wrote jokes for Bill Clinton has since become a Democrat political consultant. Same thing, fair from the word go.
It was interesting to see how the reader comments first played out in the NYT story pre/post update “timeline.” First came the predictable, anti-male, rage filled, pro-preacher comments. Then after a few hundred of those, the comments tide shifted and came rolling back on the rage-a- holics after the Smitten Kitten update. Journalism 2019… all designed to sell My Pillows and Online Car insurance…and at what expense to our invaluable 1st Amendment?
So many against capitalism.